A HEALTHY eating experiment is to see if good food leads to better behaviour and results in the classroom.

Alternative options of snacks and lunch options are being introduced in some schools.

From Monday, children in eight primaries across North Tyneside will be entitled to free healthy school food as part of the Fuel 4 Kids scheme.

The pilot is being launched by the council after the success of similar schemes elsewhere in Britain, which showed well-fed children are calmer, more motivated, have fewer days off, behave better, achieve more and are ultimately healthier and happier.

The scheme will involve more than 4,600 children, whose behaviour, performance and attendance will be monitored by Northumbria University researchers.

One of the schools taking part is Shiremoor Primary, on Park Estate, which will be offering a free mid-morning breakfast. The school already provides a breakfast club for its Year 6 pupils, aged 10 and 11, as well as fruit snacks.

Headteacher Helen Clegg said: “We have 347 pupils and, so far, 222 parents have written back to say they are happy for their child to take part. We are expecting many others to agree to it before the project starts on Monday and only seven parents have said no.

“We have been running a successful breakfast club for the older pupils for a couple of years and we already offered fruit as a mid-morning snack, so this will now be given in the afternoon to children up to seven years old and the other pupils will get juice.”

Ten other schools have been chosen to form a comparison group. They will not offer any breakfast, mid-morning or afternoon snack, just a healthy lunch. The research team will monitor results.

The pilot, which will run until the end of the school year, will cost #250,000 and be funded by the council.

If it is a success one of the options will be rolled out to all primary schools from next September.

As well as it being an attempt to improve performance in schools, the council also hopes the pilot will help to tackle obesity in childhood, as 15% of under-11s in the borough are overweight.

A council spokeswoman said: “Concentration and performance at school are affected by hunger and diet. Instilling good eating habits at an early age by making small changes in a child’s diet can have a long term effect on their health, helping growth and development but also helping to prevent obesity.”